Tripbam Tweaks RFP Tool to Include Hotel Global Sales Org.
Rate-assurance, auditing and sourcing platform provider Tripbam today announced its latest iteration of Smart Sourcing for hotels. The company revised its RFP tool with input from major hotel chains including Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Accor to increase visibility for hotel global sales organizations, even when requests are targeted to specific properties. Tripbam expects the new functionality to launch in April.
Since its rollout in 2019, Smart Sourcing has enabled travel buyers to send transient corporate travel bids directly to hotel properties at any point in the annual cycle, without waiting for traditional ‘sourcing season.’ The tool tracks market rates and automates discount proposals based on buyer volume. At the same time, Tripbam’s rate-assurance functionality and auditing has enhanced transparency, and according to buyers has kept hoteliers on their toes when it comes to providing competitive rates to corporates, especially as local markets fluctuate.
Smart Sourcing in its first iteration, however, did not loop hotel global sales organizations into the proposal process. That caused problems for hoteliers, obscuring local deals and keeping above-property sales teams from offering bigger-picture value, according to hoteliers speaking to BTN. Covid-19 compounded the problem as skeletal resources at many individual hotel properties were challenged even to respond to the RFPs that did come in.
Collaboration First for Tripbam?
The solution to these issues, according to Reynolds, was to work with the hotel companies on a “new piece of technology that integrates with [the hotels’] internal systems.”
It was important to Reynolds, however, that the buyer stay in control. With the new functionality, the buyer will choose which properties and proposals are open to the global sales team and which ones remain solely at the local level. And “if the property doesn’t respond, [the buyer has an option] to go to the national account manager,” he said.
The option is a gamechanger for the above-property sales teams, Hyatt VP of global sales Gus Vonderheide told BTN.
“That toggle switch, which was not available in phase one, now gives the customer options to send the RFP directly to the property as well as to the global sales organization. Allowing my team to communicate the process to their customers will keep everyone connected and involved,” Vonderheide said.
Tripbam’s collaboration with hoteliers also represents a welcome change in what has sometimes been a contentious relationship.
Said Vonderheide, “We both exist because hotels exist. It’s not the other way around. And we both have the responsibility to bring value to the properties. Tripbam, in allowing global sales to be involved from the very beginning and to work alongside in completing the RFP process, will result in a win-win for everyone involved.”
Terri Hardin www.businesstravelnews.com